A high-performance version of Intel's future Broadwell chip will squeeze in 18 cores -- Intel's highest core count to date -- according to a report. Meanwhile, another report points to future Broadwell chips that could populate tablets.

Vr-zone reported this week that a future 18-core Broadwell-EP or EX Xeon chip is planned that is based on Intel's upcoming 14-nanometer production process.

"Intel will not...speed up the cores, but simply pile up more of them on each [chip] die," said Vr-zone, which published a slide showing a purported Intel roadmap.

That multi-core chip wouldn't arrive until 2015, according to Vr-zone.

The first Broadwell silicon is expected in the first half of next year. Broadwell follows the current Haswell generation of processors. Intel core counts now top out at 12.

More processor cores can offer better performance if the software can take advantage of the extra cores.

And that's not all Intel has planned for Broadwell. CPU World is reporting that at the other end of processor spectrum, future power-sipping Broadwell chips could have thermal envelopes as low as 4.5 watts.

That would make Broadwell an easy fit for tablets and 2-in-1s -- a market that Intel is paying a lot of attention to these days.

About the author

Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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